,All South Africans are affected by potholes. Whether your driving on a highway, a back road or a dirt road, we have all been confronted with the wide gaping holes in the ground that leave your tyres worn and your nerves shot.
Road maintenance is the key to fewer potholes in the country. However, when considering the large amount of motor vehicles travelling on our roads coupled with our weather patterns and the raining season, which leaves our roads flooded, maintenance is easier said than done.
For logistics companies, potholes are a nightmare. Fleet maintenance is already expensive and time consuming without the addition of an occasional wasted tyre. Potholes cause a loss of time and money and complicates the smooth operating of a supply chain process.
Therefore, the entire logistics industry must greatly miss the pothole brigade. The Dial Direct Pothole Brigade was launched in 2011 so that it could give something back to the community, and repaired over 50 000 potholes in and around Gauteng.
So what happened to the pothole brigade?
Dial Direct states on its website that the Pothole Brigade could not be sustained without the buy-in and support of government. Therefore, it closed shop in 2012. The company noted that public-private partnerships in South Africa require more support from local authorities and too much red tape hinders the success of these partnerships.
Subsequently, Gauteng motorists are again forced to foot the bill for pothole repairs and need to rely on local authorities for road maintenance. Click Here to read full article on the Pothole Brigade’s closure
How do potholes influence your company’s productivity and costs, and how are you tackling this challenge?